Ex-UGA baller takes Illinois financial official down

County CFO resigns amid allegations she repeatedly bailed Cole out of jail

Posted: Tuesday, April 21, 2009

By Merritt Melancon

Former University of Georgia basketball player Tony Cole, whose allegations of recruiting violations brought down coach Jim Harrick, now is being blamed for the downfall of the chief financial officer for Cook County, Illinois.

Donna Dunnings resigned Friday after county administrators learned she had spent thousands of dollars repeatedly bailing Cole out of jail while he was employed with Chicago's Cook County, according Sean Howard, a spokesman for Cook County Commission President Todd Stroger.

Stroger, Dunnings' cousin, asked for her resignation after Cole made unspecified allegations against her after he was fired April 9 for putting false information on his job application, the Chicago Tribune reported.

"(Stroger) just didn't see, once the media was aware of (Dunnings' bailing Cole out), how she was going to be able to perform her duties," Howard said. "He made that determination based on the fact that on our county flow chart, Ms. Dunnings is right near the top. And this would just cause a storm that the county can not afford to go through."

Cole's repeated arrests were connected to an ongoing domestic violence case in Cook County, according to the Tribune. He was last arrested April 14 and currently is being held in lieu of $11,250.

Cole had similar troubles during his year and a half in Athens, between summer 2001 and January 2003, when three women accused him of either assault or harassment, but the criminal charges were dismissed in each instance. Harassment accusations against Cole date to 1999 when he attended the Community College of Rhode Island, the Tribune reported.

Stroger hired Cole in October as an administrative assistant at an annual salary of $48,289 after he met Cole at Cole's job in a Chicago-area steakhouse. Cole later worked for Dunnings' department, and then was promoted to human resources assistant in the county highway department for a annual salary of $61,189, Howard said.

The county dismissed Cole on April 9 for failing to disclose two of his felony convictions on his job application, Howard said.

The scandal spurred two Cook County commissioners to call for Stroger to step down, complaining that he supported hiring practices that benefited his friends and family.

It's not the first time Cole was instrumental in the undoing of public officials.

Georgia basketball coach Jim Harrick kicked Cole off the team in September 2002, nine months after Cole and two other student-athletes were charged in connection with the sexual assault of a female student in Cole's McWhorter Hall dorm room - charges that were dropped after one of the students was acquitted.

Months later, Cole told cable sports network ESPN that Harrick's son, assistant coach Jim Harrick Jr., gave him an A for a class he never attended. The accusations led UGA to fire Harrick Jr. and withdraw from the NCAA Basketball Tournament, and prompted an NCAA investigation into the elder Harrick's recruitment practices. Harrick Sr. resigned shortly afterward.